There are a wide variety of different environments in which conveying vehicles convey material to a target location. For instance, loaders working in a pile often have an operator compartment where an operator sits to operate the loader to load material from the pile into a dump truck. The loader can be any type of material loader, such as a tractor, a backhoe, a skid steer loader, or the like.
The loader can have a bucket that has a positioning system that is controlled by the operator to position the bucket. The bucket positioning system controls lift and tilt actuators (such as hydraulic cylinders, pneumatic cylinders, air over hydraulic cylinders, etc.). The loader also has a traction system, such as an engine that powers traction motors which, themselves, drive ground engaging wheels, tracks, or other traction mechanisms that are used to move the loader relative to the ground.
Some material conveyance (or loading) operations can be highly repetitive. For instance, where a loader is working in a pile, the operator controls the loader to repeatedly approach the pile to load the bucket, and then maneuver the vehicle so that the bucket is positioned over a target area where the load is dumped. The target area may be, for instance, the bed of a dump truck, or another target location.
Some work has been done in attempting to manufacture fully-automated loaders. In such systems, the goal is to fully automate the loading process so that an operator need not be involved, at all. These types of systems can have their own drawbacks.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.